PARTNER PORTRAIT Quickmail – A commitment to sustainability as a competitive advantage

8. February 2016

The Quickmail AG is the first private service provider in Switzerland for the delivery of addressed mailings, catalogues and client publications. Bernard Germanier, Managing Director and head of Sales & Services at Quickmail, spoke about the business model and sustainability strategy in an interview with myclimate.

Bernard Germanier, Managing Director and Head of Sales and Services at Quickmail

Please describe your company and the services that you offer

Quickmail is the first company in Switzerland to make deliveries since the partial deregulation of the postal market. The company was founded in 2009 and delivers addressed mailings, catalogues and publications. At the moment Quickmail employs 55 people full-time as well as a further 2,400 part-time delivery staff. This is equivalent to 400 full-time employees.

What do you say when you're asked about the reasons for Quickmail's success?

On the one hand, Quickmail's market launch created the first competition in Switzerland on the postal market, which has had a positive effect on clients and employees. People now have a choice when sending things by mail. By consistently focusing on customer requests, we have been able to achieve maximum positive feedback very quickly, which has in turn helped us to attract more clients. We have been able to establish ourselves on the market thanks to innovative products - also based on input from our clients - as well as ones tailored to their responses. Furthermore, over 200 clients from the insurance, health insurance, NGO, mail-order, retail and publishing industries use Quickmail for their mailings.

Is betting on letter post in the era of digitalisation really a sustainable business model?

Switzerland has the highest per-capita number of addressed letters. People also like to receive advertising mailings, mail-order catalogues and publications as hard copies. The main advantage over electronic or conventional advertising is the possibility of just putting the mailing aside and then examining it more closely at a more suitable time, for example in the evening or at the weekend. Have you ever put an e-mail ad or a billboard to one side to look at it later? Or have you ever felt the disappointment of opening your mailbox in the evening and not even finding an ad inside?

What made you decide so early on (2011) to work together with myclimate?

On the one hand the conviction that non-renewable resources cannot be free, and on the other hand the positive feedback from our clients. As an innovative company we always strive to anticipate requirements and to implement them quickly.

What is your take on the Paris climate summit, and specifically on its consequences for your company and for you as a person?

The fact that, for the first time, almost 190 industrialised and developing countries have been able to reach an agreement on global climate change and the conclusion that global warming needs to be limited to 2, possibly even just 1.5, degrees, is incredibly positive.

The really important and decisive part, however, is that these goals are achieved in time. 80% of Quickmail's deliveries are non-motorised. We have just successfully completed a pilot project using a test fleet of e-bikes, and we are seeking to expand the fleet. This also benefits Quickmail's delivery personnel, since they can use their e-bikes away from work.